Sonicfrog

Yeah. That was one of those unresolved questions. That wire is clearly marked on the 86 FSM diagram as wire 4, but, though it is labeled as speed pulse on the 87 diagram , it does not show what number socket the the wire feeds. Do you know which socket that is? If not, this should be easy enough to track down. PS. Again, I must thank Subie81 for providing the FSM diagrtam pics. Absolutely could not have gotten this far with out those.

Swapped my ugly 87 digi-dash with 86 dash and now I'm pulling an ECU code 33. It's a vehicle speed sensor. I don't have all the wires hooked up yet. Any one have any suggestions? (Subie81)

Stage two complete. The 86 dash is in and working. As some may recall, I played with the color scheme of the backlight. I did more than I originally planned. I haven't wired in the indicator lights yet, but will do that soon enough. I don't have time to go into the details now, but I will post details of the mod to the new dash, and give other details that will help others in the future. Will have pics. Stay tuned!

Couldn't I just use the line from the oil warning light that sits below the gauge array?

The conversion is coming along. I found the tach wire. I have switched the fuel sensor to the analogue version, but the reading is now below empty. Not sure what is going on here.

On the 86 analogue dash, the signal to the tach is fed via #19 wire. Does anyone know what # the digi dash wire is??? Also, what should I do about the oil pressure feed???? PS. have correct fuel and oil gauge.

Hey Subie 81. What circuit did you use for the oil pressure gauge??? I'm changing out my 87 ugly digi with a modified 86 analogue.

One thing to look out for on the turbo's. The turbo is cooled via a water tube connected under the turbo and runs to bottom of the passenger side head. The bolt connecting the tube to the head is hollow. Mine broke off inside the head. Oil runs to the turbo via another tube that has the same setup. This one is connected to the back of the same head, but that one didn't break on me. Also, on the coolant tube, there is a small ruber hose connecting the turbo to the tube. You absolutely must replace that hose as it is a pain in the *** to replace when the engine is together. Mine broke on me two weeks after I put the new engine in, so I learned that lesson the hard way:). PS. Replace the radiator hoses too. Mine blew up on me last week. And Yes! I did just change the head gaskets last month and DIDN'T replace those hoses. So I guess I have yet to learn the lesson I was speaking of a moment ago:banghead:.

Murphy the $500 87 T-Wag = 102k when purchased. Now has 111k.

I'ld guess the disty is off also, but also make sure you're giving the engine enough gas. Both times I had to re-time the engine (new engine replaced last year, head gasket this year) I had a heck of a time getting the disty in the right place. This last time (head gasket) the car wouldn't start after I put the engine back together. So I adjusted and readjusted the disty this way and that, and I still couldn't get the engine to fire. Turns out I probably had the timiing correct in the first place, and was jut not giving the engine enough gas for that first fire.

I've decided the backlight will be orange. I am not going to change the color of the needles as they are not lit that well with this dash, and a red would make then harder to see at night.

So we all know that a grounding problem will cause the temp gauge on a digi dash to give false readings. I am curious, would the bad ground also cause false readings on the fuel gauge too?? I ask because I have been dissapointed by the mpg on Murphy the 87 T-Wag (19 mpg), but wonder if there is more gas in the tank than the gauge says when it's indicating I'm running on empy. And the trip computer has definitely not given accurate readings. I am hoping to do the digi to analogue swap this wekend. Is their any way to put a resistor on the fuel sensor leads to make the digital calibrated sensor work with the analogue dash, or am I just resigned to swapping the sensor? I am going to swap the 3AT to 5 spd D/R later this spring. I was planning to change the fuel sensor at that time. In the mean time, I will fill the tank and keep an eye on the trip odometer. When I've traveled about 200 mi. or so I will refill the tank.

While going to Downtown Fresno yesterday. Murphy, the $500 87 T-Wag blew a radiator hose. I was on the freeway, driving about 70, sudenly notice (or felt) something different. I looked in my rear view and noticed white smoke. I pulled off the freeway into downtown, I drove on, hoping to get to my destination not far away. I didn't quite get there. Murph died in the middle of an intersection, a few blocks from where I was trying to go. I pushed the car to the side of the road and popped the hood. The upper radiator hose dun blowed up. God I hope I didn't fry the engine trying to get to my destination. So I called AAA and got a tow truck, and only had to wait twenty minutes for it to arrive. The tow driver asked if my car was AWD. I said no, it's 4WD. So he jacks up the back end, with the front wheels on ground. We are in the truck ready to go when I ask: "By the way, why are you towing from the back"? He says "Well on 4WD cars the front wheels are free when the transmition is in 2WD mode":eek:. I then tell him that 4WD Subies and most other cars that have 4WD are normaly Front Wheel Drive when not in FWD. You would think a tow trunk driver would know these things :-\. Tow Guy then gets out of the truck and attaches a set of jacked wheels to Murph's front wheels. I'm sure there would not have been damage to the transaxle if the car rolled home on the front wheels, 4 1/2 miles away, but I'm glad that we didn't do it regardless. So the lesson here is: Make sure you check that Tow Guys, or mechanics for that matter, know about your Subies. PS. Got the car home, hopped in the work truck, and went to Kragen Auto for the hose. I decided to get the lower hose too since I'm under the hood getting dirty. I also replaced the temp sensor to see if the bizzaro digi gauge temp readings would normalize (turn fan or headlights on and watch the thing spike). I replace the parts, put water in the rad, and Murph started right up . Today, while driving around, the check engine light was on for a while, but is off now. I think an electrical connection to a sensor might have still been moist, but I'll keep an eye on it. PPS. The other lesson learned: When you change the head gaskets on your car, as I did a month ago, you should replace the radiator hoses, and any other coolant hoses, since you already have them off the engine! PPPPS. Didn't I learn that lesson already???

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The Tornado is BS. The only mileage benefits you get are from following the driving tips provided with the product - don't accelerate hard, drive at the speed limit, etc. etc... things you can do on your own.

I went to the J-yard and got an 86 analogue dash to replace my ugly 87 digi. Before I do I am going to change the lighting scheme from the standard yellow-ish backlight to another set of colors. I was thinking of putting an orange or blue gel behind the numbers and leaving the needle the factory white color. I would love to do the VW Deep Blue / Red thing, but since the needles in the subie dash share the light from the background, I think that would be allot of work. Any suggestions on ways to change the dash backlighting? And / or, you can just provide color suggestions here : ____________ needles, __________background.

You forgot about musical gear - bass rig, guitar cases and cabinets, drums, etc. etc...

I thought someone had a thread similar to this, but I couldn't find it. So I'll start it. The blogger, BFT, had written a post about a new California law requiring the headlights to be turned on if the wipers are also turned on during rainy or foggy days. I mentioned that I always leave my lights on, as they turn off automatically when I turn off my car. I love that feature. There are many features I love about my Subies, past and present. But my all time favorite still has to be.... drum roll please (there should be an emoticon for that).... The Third Eye. Such a unique feature. I know of no other car that had one. And I don't really know if it's usefull; and maybe that's why I love it so. PS. I AM going to mod Murphy, the 87 $500 T-Wag, and intall one the grill... after I change the ugly greenish digi-dash to an 86 orange analogue one!

Murphy, the $500 87 T-Wag has em. But at speed, say beyond 60 mph, the driver side mirror would whistle. So, with the mirror in the normal position, I put so seran wrap on one side of the mirrror, and spread a small bead of black silicon on the seam where the two parts meet, and let it dry overnight. in the morning, I pulled off the seran wrap, flipped the mirror back in place, and trimmed the excess silicon with a razor. No more whistling. Now I can hear myself sing off tune whilst driving at 75 mph.

My first thought was also clogged cat. never had one in a Subie, but had a 79 Accord (cute car, but not a Subie) that acted the same way you describe. Another possibility is the air intake assembley could be a little loose. causing loss of power at higher RPMs. I would double check all the air intake hoses from the air filter to the air injection unit, just to be on the safe side.

Probably # 3 head seal gone boom. I just got done replacing my HG's. Before I did, I used Barrs Stop Leak to get a few more miles out of Murphy, the $500 87 T-Wag. When I finally dug into the engine I saw evidence of the Stop Leak sealing that section on the block. Also, I have read more than once on this site that # 3 cylinder is an accidental engineered weakness on this engine design, especially for the turbo model. Two tips if you indeed have to replace the gasket. Do both sides at the same time. Even if only one side seems blown, changes are, since they have been on the engine a long time the other is weak with age. It would totally suck if you only change one, and the other one blows a few months later. The other reason is that the newer gaskets are made out of better materials than the old ones, so it would be beneficial in the long run to do both. Oh, if you do end up replacing the HG's, watch out for the bolts that attach the cooling tubes from the turbo to the passenger side head. They are hollow bolts and break easily. Here are some pics of the # 3 head and the Barrs Leak residue at my blog.

I spy with my two eyes a third eye. I am going to mod that onto my 87 T-Wag one of these days.

Wooo Hoooo!!! Murphy passed smog! In November, the CO tested too high, 2.03 @ 15mph and 1.08 @ 25mpn, and after I replaced the coolant temp sensor (the one by the crappy 3 spd auto tranny) and changed the head gaskets, the reading are at .74 and .54, respectively. The max CO readings are .79 and .68, so I just squeacked by. It looks like I am still running richer than I should be. I replaced the O2 sensor earlier last year Kragen part), but I wonder if it is not functioning as well as it should. What else could I do to lean out the air / fuel ratio and improve my gas mileage???

My 87 GL-10 T-Wag has four wheel disk. It stops as well as my friends 99 Cougar with four wheel disk + ALB

After a long month and 1/2 of head gasket hell, I finally got Murphy, the $500 T-Wag running again. The car seems to idle better than before so I'm hoping it will now pass smog and can finally bring the registration up to date (six months behind). The last smog test was a bit too high on the CO2 measurement. Next I will replace the t-stat and the temp sensor, as the car intermittently registers a little on the hot side. That could be the digi-dash doing it's wierd thing, and that will be swapped out of analogue soon. While working on the engine I installed the proper oil pressure sensor. I did not reinstall the timing belt covers, and found one little problem with that. The wire that goes to the oil pressure sensor hangs directly over the passenger side timing belt. So I used a twist-tie to fasten it to the dipstick housing.